Saturday, May 9, 2009

World Series of Birding

As a new twist to this annual competition, in which NBNC has
participated since 1999, our team was comprised of 'alumni' youth
birders, who have participated in past programs and are now pursuing
higher education. For 24-hours, we birded non-stop across Cape May
County.

Fueled by caffeine and adrenaline, the “North Branch Noddies”
managed to see and hear 156 different species of birds, topping their
previous year’s
total. While the Noddies placed fourth in their division of the
competition, they found more rare and unusual birds than ever before
including Black-necked Stilt (pictured right) and Swallow-tailed Kite.

We also raised over $5,000 to support NBNC’s Youth Birding
Program. Our team's total species count for the trip was 173 and included
two dozen species of warblers (Northern Parula pictured above, photo by
Sean Beckett) Other non-avian sightings included Box Turtle, Spotted
Turtle, Common Five-lined Skink, Fowler's Toad, American Bullfrog,
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, American Beauty and much, much more!